MA/FAW-53 Blazier
The Blazier is a Fortress-Assault Wanzer class Mobile Armor utilized by the Durandal. Despite it's classification as a Mobile Armor, the Blazier looks more like a Mobile Suit that's super-sized, even by normal Mobile Suit standards. The unit is the Durandal's very first Mobile Armor and is piloted by Durandal Cyber-Pilot Leon. Appearance: While the Blazier is classified as a Mobile Armor, the unit has the very look and capabilites of a super-sized Mobile Suit geared for fortress and fleet battles. The MS-style Mobile Armor is thickly armored and is indicated on the battle field not only by it's size, but also by the uniquely-shaped wing binders on it's shoulders and the tail binder mounted on the unit's back. The appearance is unique among traditional MS/MA units as a tail binder is not something the average MS/MA pilot and/or engineer has to deal with. According to current MS/MA records, the Blazier is the only Cosmic Era mobile armor to both be modeled after a Mobile Suit and to possess a tail binder. The unit also moves just like a Mobile Suit, which makes many of those who've seen the unit (and survive, in the case of those who've seen the unit in action) wonder how such a unit got classified as a Mobile Armor, rather than something like "Fortress Suit". Despite the unit's bulk, the high-power thrusters in the wing and tail binders, as well as in the unit's legs allow it to move with the speed and dexterity of a conventional Mobile Suit. Weaponry: *"Fefnir-A" Positron Blaster Cannon: : Perhaps the most powerful weapon aboard the Blazier is its "Fefnir-A" Positron Blaster Cannon, which has been considered the bane of anything and everything caught in the weapon's line of fire. Like the battleship versions of this weapon, the "Fefnir-A" fires out a stream of positrons, the anti-matter version of electrons, in the form of a coherent beam of energy that causes anything it comes into contact with to break down at a molecular level, effectively vaporizing the target. Uniquely enough, the "Fefnir-A" is not a weapon that the Blazier has to hold, rather, the weapon is hidden in the unit's right forearm, integrated directly into the frame of the Mobile Armor with the interior of the arm and the hand being equipped with the proper shielding in order to prevent the weapon from self-destructing the Blazier. Due to this, the weapon causes the interior of the Blazier's right arm to radiate a dark-red, almost crimson-ish glow prior to the weapon's firing. Due to power-grid issues, the weapon was given a separate nuclear reactor, integrated into the upper-right arm of the unit, to draw its power from. This weapon is almost never used in atmosphere due to the potential pollution risks the weapon's firing will have on the surrounding environment, being used only when performing an emergency atmospheric breach in order to get into space when the need arises. *"Fefnir-B" Multi-Phase Beam Gun: : To compensate for the "Fefnir-A"'s inability to be used in atmosphere, the Blazier compensates with its "Fefnir-B" Multi-Phase Beam Gun. like it's "brother weapon", the "Fefnir-B" is directly integrated into the forearm of the unit, with the weapon's beam projector being located in the palm of the arm's hand. due to the "Fefnir-A" occupying the right arm, the "Fefnir-B" was integrated into the left arm of the unit. Since the weapon fires a more conventional energy beam, rather than a beam of highly-destructive positrons, the "Fefnir-B" can be used both in space and in atmosphere. While not as powerful as the "Fefnir-A" in terms of damage output, the "Fefnir-B" is able to be connected directly into the Blazier's main power-grid due to not needing nearly as much power as the "Fefnir-A", while only losing around 35% of the potential damage of its postiron blaster cannon counterpart. Despite the seemingly dramatic lose in damage potential, the weapon is still capable of destroying even a Phase-Shift Armor protected MS with only two shot, as seen from its simulator data. *"Tail-Blazer" Missile Pod: : Perhaps the most unorthodox weapon to be found on the Blazier is the "Tail-Blazer" Missile Pod which, as the name suggests, is mounted in the tail binder of the Mobile Armor. What seems to be an impossible to use weapon by enemies is quickly found to be the most surprisingly effective weapon the Blazier has in its arsenal, as all of the missiles fired from this seemingly odd weapon are customized for surprisingly high agility and speed among more conventional missile-type weapons while still maintaining each individual warhead's destructive power. The missile pod is capable of launching a grand total of 30 missiles at once, with storage capacity for approximately 5 full salvos' worth of missiles (which adds up to around 150 high-mobility missiles, a staggering amount, given how many the unit can fire at once). The unit can fire any combination of warhead types, from those typically found on warships, to the missile warhead types specifically made for it by the Durandal. *"Spreading-Ember" Hyper-Impulse Scatter Beam Gun: : Another high-energy beam-type weapon found on the Blazier, the "Spreading-Ember" is a Hyper-Impulse Beam Gun that fires a multitude of high-energy beams in a constantly varying array of directions, similar to a shotgun. The variable firing arcs of each beam makes this a difficult weapon to evade or block. it can also be used for missile interception, given how hard it typically is for targets to weave their way out of the shotgun-like field of beam shots. This further cements the Blazier's role as a Fortress-Assault Wanzer, as the "Spreading-Ember" can also be linked directly into the multi-targetting system for precision beam hits on key fortress defenses. Two of these units are mounted directly into the torse of the Blazier. *"Controlled-Burn" Hyper-Impulse Phonon Maser Cannon: : As with the other ranged weapons on the Blazier, the "Controlled-Burn" is found on the Blazier's body as an integrated weapon, rather than as a hand-held weapon. Powered-up to the damage level of the "Spreading-Ember", the "Controlled-Burn" is a Phonon Maser Cannon infused with the firing mechanisms of a Hyper-Impulse beam gun. Similar to the weapon featured on the Forbidden, the beam from this gun can arc to an extent, allowing it to either give limited pursuit to a rather evasive enemy unit, or take out a string of enemy units with one blast. A secondary feature allows the "Controlled-Burn" to sacrifice its homing ability to allow a type of firing similar to the "Scattering-Ember". Both features have their uses in the Blazier's role as a Fortress-Assault type Wanzer unit. Only one of these weapons is found on the Blazier, mounted right into the unit's head, directly above the eye sensors. *"Armed-Phenomenon" Large Beam Saber: : Just like the "Phantom" Beam Saber before it, the "Armed-Phenomenon" is a beam saber that can have either twice the cutting power or length its beam blade would normally have, but not both. Given that this is a Large Beam Saber, the cutting power and length of the blade is already double that of a normal beam saber, with the hilt being around triple the size of a normal beam saber hilt. Like the "Phantom" beam saber, the "Armed-Phenomenon" can deploy a cloud of Mirage Colloid particles to disguise the blade of the saber, allowing for surprise, extra-long range saber attacks. Two of these weapons are mounted on the Blazier, with one located underneath each wing binder. Equipment: *Trans-Phase Armor: : Like all Durandal units, the Blazier is armored with powered-up Trans-Phase Armor. The armor on the Blazier is significantly harder to penetrate than the TP-Armor on most Durandal units, owing to the amount of firepower the unit attracts on the battlefield just from the mere sight of the unit. It was mainly done this way, however, due to its role as a Fortress-Assault type Wanzer unit, as a high level of armor durability is needed when engaging land and space fortresses. The armor is also thickly layered, allowing the Blazier to still take considerable punishment before succumbing to enemy fire even after the TP-Armor has failed. * Internal Hangar: : A seemingly odd feature for a Fortess-Assault type Mobile Armor, the chest cavity of the Blazier is mostly hollow, with the open space going down into the waist section, lower torso, and part of the upper legs of the Mobile Armor. This is, in fact, a small hangar able to fit a single Mobile Suit. If the hangar is in use, the controls for the Mobile Armor are capable of being transferred to the Mobile Suit docked inside. The bother unit of the Blazier, the smaller and much more maneuverable Blazer, typically can be found in this hangar. The controls of the Blazier are almost always transferred to the Blazer whenever Leon sorties them as one. * Core-Block Derived System: : While the Blazier is technically one unit, it is assembled using a variant of the Core-Block system found on the Impulse. When sortied, the upper and lower torsos are launched as separate fliers, with a third flier forming the wing and tail binders (or "Binder Flier"). This system is what allows Leon to form the Blazier around the Blazer during sortie and what allows Leon to jettison the two halves of the Blazier to reveal the Blazer. The system is only used during the Blazier's and the Blazer's first sortie, whenever Blazer is revealed, and during the sortie after Blazer was revealed. Trivia/Homages/Little-Known Facts: *The appearance and functionality of the Blazier was inspired by the NZ-000 Quin-Mantha, a Mobile Suit from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ *The unit's "Fefnir-A" and "Fefnir-B" weapons are an homage to Fighting Fefnir, a character from the Megaman Zero Series *Similarly, the unit's "Armed Phenomenon" beam sabers are named after the tranformation that the "Four Guardians" from the Megaman Zero Series can undertake to surpass the limits of their normal forms, and the weapon is aptly named, as it is considerably larger and stronger than ordinary beam sabers *All of the Blazier's other weapons and even its own name is a reference to fire *The "Tail-Blazer" was inspired by the Funnel container mounted in the Quin-Mantha's tail binder, but was changed to a large missile container&launcher combo rather than a container for DRAGOON pods in order to limit the already considerable strain on the unit's powergrid *As with all Durandal units, the Blazier is protected by powered-up Trans-Phase Armor, a feature added to allow increased protection while conserving powergrid